Postpartum Doula vs. Night Nanny vs. NCS: What’s the Best Fit for Your Family?
If you’re expecting a baby (or currently pacing the hallway with one), you’ve likely heard these terms tossed around. But figuring out who does what can feel confusing, especially when you’re running on little sleep and a lot of Google searches. Postpartum doula. Night nanny. Baby nurse. Newborn care specialist…
What’s the deal with all these titles?
Let’s break it down simply so you can find the kind of support that actually fits your family.
🍼 What Is a Postpartum Doula?
A postpartum doula is a trained professional who provides physical, emotional, and practical support to parents during the fourth trimester. They focus on the whole family’s adjustment to life with a newborn, especially the mother’s recovery, mental health, and confidence.
Postpartum doulas can:
Support breastfeeding or bottle feeding
Help establish newborn routines
Answer baby care questions
Offer emotional support and education
Prep light meals and keep laundry from taking over your house
They’re like your wise, nonjudgmental bestie who shows up with snacks and helps you figure out why the baby’s crying again.
🌙 What Is a Night Nanny?
A night nanny primarily focuses on overnight infant care. They typically arrive in the evening and stay until early morning, tending to the baby so parents can get some sleep.
Night nannies usually:
Change, feed, and soothe the baby overnight
Wake parents if needed for nursing (or handle bottle feeds)
Keep the nursery tidy
Focus solely on infant care (not parent support or postpartum recovery)
Unlike postpartum doulas, night nannies may not provide educational or emotional support, and their scope of practice & level of training can wildly vary! Be sure that if someone is claiming to be a “night nanny” that you ask about training, credentials and experience (maybe ask for references?) before hiring.
🎓 What Is a Newborn Care Specialist?
A Newborn Care Specialist (or NCS) is a trained professional who specializes in the care of infants from birth through around 3 or 4 months of age. They’re sometimes called “night nannies,” but here’s the key difference: NCSs are trained, vetted, and often certified in newborn care.
These pros typically work overnight and focus on:
Creating healthy sleep habits from the start
Establishing feeding and diapering routines
Educating parents on newborn cues, soothing techniques, and developmental norms
Supporting singletons, twins, and even high-order multiples
NCSs usually work in short-term, live-in, or rotating overnight roles during the newborn phase, and many families hire them for sleep conditioning (Sleep Shaping) or twins/triplets support.
While NCSs do not provide postpartum recovery support (like doulas do), they’re highly skilled in all things baby, and often have extensive experience with NICU grads, reflux, and feeding challenges.
💡 At Oh Baby! KC, several of our overnight postpartum doulas are also Newborn Care Specialists.
😴 Bonus Round: What About Sleep Coaches?
If you’ve ever typed “why won’t my baby sleep??” into Google at 3 a.m., you’ve likely stumbled into the world of sleep coaches, also known as sleep consultants.
So what do they do and how are they different from doulas and night nannies?
A sleep coach specializes in helping families teach their babies and toddlers healthy sleep habits. They typically work with babies 4 months and older, once sleep cycles mature a bit, and they:
Create personalized sleep plans
Help troubleshoot bedtime battles or frequent wake-ups
Provide guidance on routines, naps, regressions, and more
Offer remote or in-home support, depending on the coach
Some are gentle, some are more structured, and some offer in-home “done-for-you” sleep coaching (👋 hi, it’s us!).
Sleep coaches typically don’t provide newborn care or hands-on postpartum support - but they’re amazing when your baby’s ready to build longer stretches of independent sleep. Our Sleep Coaches also wear their “Postpartum Doula hats” so they will support a family in the early days and then transition to “Sleep Pro” when your baby is ready to do longer stretches of sleep.
💡 At Oh Baby! KC, we offer sleep coaching starting at 4 months and because we’ve supported your baby since birth, we already know what works best for them.
🤔 So... Which One Do You Need?
If you’re just looking for someone to take over baby duty overnight so you can sleep? A night nanny can absolutely be helpful (with proper vetting).
But if you want a whole-family approach - someone to support your recovery, answer questions, and help you feel empowered in the early weeks of parenting, -a postpartum doula may be the better fit.
At Oh Baby! KC, our postpartum doulas are trained in both newborn care and parent support. We work days and nights, and we show up not just to rock your baby, but to walk alongside you as you find your rhythm as a parent.